What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[XoPachi]

I must try the Oracle games at some point; had a couple of brief goes at them, but they never stuck quite like Awakening did. Maybe it's the Pokemon Red / Blue factor...

I actually just got to Poison Moth's Lair before checking this thread. They're great games packed with things to do especially if you link them. Sumez is correct. Aside from the appearances, they're totally different even in their core gimmicks. Totally separate worlds, temples, antagonists (that recognize you've killed the opposing game's if you start a linked file in the other), and mostly different items. And they maintain equal quality while both being some of the fullest Zelda titles. Probably the only thing I've ever seen that justified dual releases.

I learned recently that the studio behind them, Flagship, had a hand in Resident Evil 2 which is interesting. They were also ex Konami devs before forming the studio.

[vol.2]

It always stands out to me how much taller and more grown up the characters tend to look in 80s/90s stuff even if they're meant to be the same age.

Sexy in regular anime (not hentai), in the 90s was like Tenchi Muyo's Ayeka and Ryoko.



I was about as prepared for what happened in the 2000s in anime as I was for whale tale panties to get popular. What a weird phase that was, but it kinda stuck in the anime world with the hentai stuff moving into the mainstream in a "lite" way.

[Sturmvogel Prime]

Currently playing Turrican Anthology Vol. I on PS4

Does anyone know where's the secret area on Super Turrican's train level?

[XoPachi]

I dog anime a lot, but god I loved this show as a kid. Nostalgic...

[Sengoku Strider]

I was about as prepared for what happened in the 2000s in anime as I was for whale tale panties to get popular. What a weird phase that was, but it kinda stuck in the anime world with the hentai stuff moving into the mainstream in a "lite" way.

I remember Ranma had a very large amount of naked perky boobs. I have never believed Rumiko Takahashi was straight. There was way too much care and affection put into those boobs.

[cfx]

.

[Arino]

You know there's an anime and manga thread in off-topic, right? Could you please take this there and get back on topic? I think it's gone on long enough here.

"What is this? Nazi Germany?"

[Air Master Burst]

You know there's an anime and manga thread in off-topic, right? Could you please take this there and get back on topic? I think it's gone on long enough here.

This is giving me major "no fighting in the war room!" vibes.

Anime/manga and some genres of video game have been entirely inseparable for years now. There were multiple video games released for every franchise mentioned so far.

Or do we have to add a stupid "in JRPGs" to every post we make to satisfy your organizational requirements?

ETA: how would you even classify something like .hack?

[Sengoku Strider]

I just sold off my SFC Ranma games last week, so at least in the back of my mind that random thought was video game related. Although I think the PC Engine ones are the only games where tops come off...I guess there must have been some PC releases somewhere.

---------------------

But I don't mind getting back on target here. You know, a lot of people rag on Sokoban, but I'm kind of into it. I've been playing Shijo Saidai no Sokoban on MD on & off for a while, which in proper 90s fashion was localized as Shove It! The Warehouse Game in the West. It came out in the first year of system's lifespan and while it was the exact sort of thing I would have overlooked at the time, in terms of dollars per game hours this had to have been the best buy on the market. Some of these puzzles have taken me entire evenings to sort out, and there are dozens of them. What's interesting is the parts of your brain it engages with. It's using spacial memory, but there's no narrative component (aside from the occasional framing device cut scenes) and unlike Tetris or something the action is static, so there's no reaction pressure. I get into this weird flow state zone with it where I'm cruising through these puzzles without really being conscious of it while thinking about other stuff, despite the fact that it's obviously quite cognitively taxing. Like, I'd think this should be exhausting but it only is if you expect to get through it quickly. If I set aside expectations I can go at it for hours, but it is demanding enough that it's gotta be making me better at spacial reasoning.

Maybe if you are geometryborne, grim-facedly bestriding a world of calculable objects which hates and fears you then you can get through it quickly, but for me I think this is going to take me months to beat.

[vol.2]

But I don't mind getting back on target here. You know, a lot of people rag on Sokoban, but I'm kind of into it. I've been playing Shijo Saidai no Sokoban on MD on & off for a while, which in proper 90s fashion was localized as Shove It! The Warehouse Game in the West.

Far be it from me to respond to your Ranma/perky breast comment. Sigh.

Sokoban is fun and addictive. Love all those weird puzzle games. It's not hard to image why the game got a bad rap though. Just imagine the riches that could be yours!

[Arino]

Anime/manga and some genres of video game have been entirely inseparable for years now.

More like for decades/from the beginning of the history of video games

This ad is 10/10

[Sengoku Strider]

This ad is 10/10

That's actually the box art for the game. The print ad is...something:



I have the Japanese version, they didn't even try with the box for this one:



Quick sketches of boxes, with one reused for the back beside two tiny screen shots. It screams rush job which...I don't know why that would be the case. It hit Japan at the end of Jan '90, it was the only release for the system inside of a two month span. It hit at low season while competing against nothing.

They did include a line saying it makes full use of the Mega Drive's graphics & sound, which is a hilarious lie.

[Lander]

Ha, those are great! Makes sense that blue-collar folks in SEGA world would daydream of living the OutRun life I love that the pained grimace is still present in the daydream for the second one too.

Speaking of cars(?), I put F-Zero GX on after seeing it mentioned in here, and have finally started to appreciate its finer points after years of being a WipEout kid.

Beautiful piece of mechanical engineering; a real tapestry of high-level techniques that emerge from properties of its physics system. It feels fucking good to learn the proper applications and compositions of Quick Turn, Momentum Turbo Slide, and Momentum Throttle for a given course / machine combo.

I remember balking at the ticket-based drip-feed of story mode stages and machines before, but armed with a Max Speed guide, I'm hungry to take every last one through GP mode to learn its properties and find my favourite; Mrs. Arrow is probably the front-runner so far, nice mix of drifty weight and high speed with an earnest Mrs. Universe vibe.

And man, the saturday morning action figure aesthetic is so fun. Now you can't back down! *casual triple backflip* So you're gonna beat me or forefeit your machine! What a lovable chump Goroh is

It's best not to think of them that way.
They are two complete and thorough games, entirely different from each other. And if you do the linking thing to play them on order, I really recommend starting with Seasons.
The reason being that you'll be a bit OP on the second game you're playing, and that would mitigate some of Seasons' strengths. Ages works fine with it.

Probably the only thing I've ever seen that justified dual releases.

Nice, that's good to hear; colored subversions tend to induce a paralysis of choice, now I've less time to spend fully exploring two sameish versions of Mega Man Battle Network or the like.

Appreciate the tips too - in a sense the play order sounds a little like the Color Dungeon from Awakening; easy to tip the scales massively in your favour if you do things in a specific order.

I learned recently that the studio behind them, Flagship, had a hand in Resident Evil 2 which is interesting. They were also ex Konami devs before forming the studio.

Interesting, makes me wonder if they were the originators of the Zapping system, since it's a similar kind of inter-campaign mechanic.

[samspot]

This ad is 10/10

That's actually the box art for the game. The print ad is...something:

I bet this game doesn't do well on the Seconds-to-Crate review system! https://www.oldmanmurray.com/features/40.html

[Sengoku Strider]

I bet this game doesn't do well on the Seconds-to-Crate review system! https://www.oldmanmurray.com/features/40.html

Wow. The neurons in my brain that recall this site existed are a million miles from any type of cold or even cued recall.

[vol.2]

Wow. The neurons in my brain that recall this site existed are a million miles from any type of cold or even cued recall.

stc also sometimes called ttc (time to crate) lol. A blast from the past indeed. It's Erik Wolpaw and Chet Faliszek site from back in the day, before they worked on Valve stuff.

[Sengoku Strider]

Wow. The neurons in my brain that recall this site existed are a million miles from any type of cold or even cued recall.

stc also sometimes called ttc (time to crate) lol. A blast from the past indeed. It's Erik Wolpaw and Chet Faliszek site from back in the day, before they worked on Valve stuff.

I never read the site often enough to know the authors well, for me it was just one of those 00s-era internet blogs that seemed to show up in forum discussions, like Acts of Gord or Maddox.

[vol.2]

I never read the site often enough to know the authors well, for me it was just one of those 00s-era internet blogs that seemed to show up in forum discussions, like Acts of Gord or Maddox.

I know it primarily because of Half-Life lore. Eric and Chet joined Valve to work on the HL2 episodes with Mark Laidlaw, but between them they also worked on Left4Dead, Portal and Psychonauts

Behold Eric and Chet:

[Air Master Burst]

Eric and Chet joined Valve to work on the HL2 episodes with Mark Laidlaw, but between them they also worked on Left4Dead, Portal and Psychonauts

This made a ton of sense at the time too when you consider that Half-Life is one of the most crate-focused franchises in history. Then they went and made Portal, which features the most famous crate in game history.

[Sumez]

Wow! This is mind blowing news to me

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I picked up the Nintendo Switch ports of EDF 2, 3 and 4.1. I've been playing 3 while travelling, the third game's fun and the quality of life improvements like autosaving are nice, but the lighting in underground missions is darker and I found even with the Switch at max brightness it was impossible to see properly in Portable mode. Unfortunate, I hope EDF 2 and 4.1 aren't affected by this (2 originally had very bright underground lighting even compared to 3, and 4.1 has actual flashlights to light up stuff, at least on the PS4 and PC versions).

Speaking of cars(?), I put F-Zero GX on after seeing it mentioned in here, and have finally started to appreciate its finer points after years of being a WipEout kid.

I remember as a kid selecting between them in a store and going WipEout due to aesthetics. While I really appreciate the later F-Zero games and frankly prefer racing without the weaponry gimmick, I think still think I prefer WipEout in terms of aesthetic design. The third game had some really fun tracks and I liked the prototype tracks they included that basically were untextured, abstract looking tracks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5OHbZBKNQ0

Have you ever played Extreme-G for the N64? I remember disliking it, thinking it felt like it was far weaker than F-Zero or WipEout.

[XoPachi]

WipEout and F-Zero are always very interesting to compare. WipEout has a very high skill floor. You can't really get good at WipEout until you've gotten a handle on it's physics which is a high learning curve for a lot of new players. Pitch control, really strict airbraking, the more gradual turning, etc. Conversely, F-Zero has a much lower skill floor, but I'd argue that it has a much higher ceiling for technical optimization. X, GX, and Climax at least. I tend to play both series very equally.

The only thing about WipEout I've never liked is how few tracks they tend to have compared to other racers. And they try to make up for this by making you go through speed classes which I just don't care for. I'm only trying to play the games on Phantom. I appreciate that F-Zero is just one speed and a good amount of tracks.

Also, Extreme-G 1 is funky, but that game has an amazing vibe they never got right afterwards. Seriously good music too.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

The only thing about WipEout I've never liked is how few tracks they tend to have compared to other racers. And they try to make up for this by making you go through speed classes which I just don't care for. I'm only trying to play the games on Phantom. I appreciate that F-Zero is just one speed and a good amount of tracks.

Agreed, especially about the speed classes. It's a huge learning curve going from one to the next as your timing gets completely thrown off.

Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune sort of does this but it eases you into it better. As you play through the game your car's performance changes and you have to learn to handle some turns a bit differently than when playing a low performance car, but the adjustment is far more gradual so it's not as difficult to get used to, and most of the time you're playing it's with a maxed out vehicle.

Speaking of N64 racers, Wave Race 64 and Excitebike 64 were both amazing. Top notch games, those.

[Lemnear]

Wipeout is one of my favorite racing games (least favourite, but still) ,i like it's VectorHeart aesthetic ... even if it doesn't relax me at all (yeah i usually go to "The Zone" with these types of games and they relax me).
I never appreciated F-Zero, except for the fact that Captain Falcon's abilities come from faith in Christ (author's own words) LOL
I prefer Wipeout because it brings with it a specific cultural background, C0ldSt0rage (who curated the playlist and composed the original songs) frequented the underground clubs of the 90s for inspiration.

[Air Master Burst]

The only thing about WipEout I've never liked is how few tracks they tend to have compared to other racers.

The PSP entries are my favorites, and they both give you a shitload of tracks. I personally prefer the handling in Pulse (the PS2 version is my vote for best futuristic racer of all time), but Pure is fantastic too.

Speaking of N64 racers, Wave Race 64 and Excitebike 64 were both amazing. Top notch games, those

I would also add 1080, Podracer, and Beetle Adventure Racing. It's a solid console for arcade racers.

[Sengoku Strider]

The PSP entries are my favorites, and they both give you a shitload of tracks. I personally prefer the handling in Pulse (the PS2 version is my vote for best futuristic racer of all time), but Pure is fantastic too.

Pure was the one I played to death. Wipeout HD on PS3 was based on tracks from Pure & Pulse, I had it but got kind of burned out on the difficulty, so I never got 2048 on Vita when that came around. Omega Collection on PS4 is just Wipeout HD + 2048, so that's probably the best way to experience that content in this day & age.

[vol.2]

I only have the OG game and XL, but I played the shit out of them last couple years. Took me awhile to get the hang of the air brakes.

Then they went and made Portal, which features the most famous crate in game history.

An FPS without crates is like Italian ice without the custard. Still sweet, but could be better.

[BulletMagnet]

Finally got to spend some time with Legend of Nayuta, which had been sitting around my backlog for some time; just finished the "Main" story, figured I'd post a few thoughts before starting the "After" stuff:

- I never played the PSP original, but from here it certainly looks to have cleaned up quite nicely on PC - the environments and bosses in particular more than make up for the low polygon count (presumably the OG didn't run at 60 FPS either), the music certainly retains That Essential Falcom Pep, and I liked most of the English VAs too (the antagonists being a slight exception).

- More interestingly, the game's portable origins actually give it a leg up on its more illustrious brethren in my book: I've noted how I quit Trails of Cold Steel in part because regularly checking everything and everyone in town was such a slog, but the smaller village and cast here (not to mention generous fast travel) made doing so a lot less grating. Heck, the fact that you play as a lifelong resident who already knows everyone and not a visiting student to a major city just plain makes more intuitive sense in the first place.

- Segueing from there, no matter how fancy a sword he wields or how many impassioned monologues he gives about protecting his friends, at the end of the day Nayuta's just a big ol' nerd, and it's tough not to root for him; I do wish that part of his personality didn't fade into the background as much as it did as time went on, but in spite of myself I just kinda like the guy.

The rest of the cast contains plenty of tropes, of course, but for whatever reason, instead of making me roll my eyes as in Cold Steel somehow here they struck me more as they tend to in the Ys games, as present but mostly inoffensive, and occasionally good for a chuckle. Can't honestly put my finger on precisely why...they just don't seem quite as "in your face" somehow, maybe, kinda?

- My main complaints also happen to stem from the game's birth on the PSP, most notably the lack of an adjustable camera, which can make certain attacks and obstacles almost impossible to detect until they're right on top of you (though it does allow them to frame things to make the levels always look as cool as possible, at least). This combined with some janky auto-aim mechanics make both the combat and platforming feel uncharacteristically sloppy; some of those grapple points are seriously janky as all hell.

This is made more frustrating by the chain system, which encourages you to always keep moving and not skip battles for maximum rewards, but the only way to finish many stages like this is a combination of rote memorization, cheese and dumb luck; thankfully it's hardly essential to success (at least on Normal difficulty), but it's a shame it's such a hassle to take advantage of.

Overall a pretty good time so far; I'm sure there are a million references for "dialed-in" Legend of Heroes fans to spot, which are almost all completely wasted on me, but oh well! Let's see how the extra content strikes me...

[Arino]

Everybody talks about crates nowadays. But what about barrels? Barrels don't get enough credit. Video games would not have made it this far without barrels. I'd even go as far as to say barrels are just as important as crates. Barrels and crates are a cornerstone of games.

I don't know if it's true, but George McCrate claims that any barrel in any game from 1986 and after was provided by him!
https://youtu.be/siKElfySk4A?si=e7CIYCqsqNL5fnP6

[Lander]

I remember as a kid selecting between them in a store and going WipEout due to aesthetics. While I really appreciate the later F-Zero games and frankly prefer racing without the weaponry gimmick, I think still think I prefer WipEout in terms of aesthetic design. The third game had some really fun tracks and I liked the prototype tracks they included that basically were untextured, abstract looking tracks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5OHbZBKNQ0

Have you ever played Extreme-G for the N64? I remember disliking it, thinking it felt like it was far weaker than F-Zero or WipEout.

I always took WipEout to be deeper overall - more tighly focused on the nuances of its antigrav fast-bar-of-soap physics model than F-Zero's mix of strafing, ramming, and meter-management.

In retrospect, I think that's partly down to the 'Nintendo factor' of avoiding sequels unless they can execute a marked improvement on previous work - less games overall means a less varied enumeration on what the gameplay can be, but arguably an overall higher quality bar for the absence of mainline clangers like Fusion.

I rented Extreme-G briefly back in the day - predictably, because of the box art - and thought it was cool, though my frame of reference at that point was Mario Kart 64, so not really much to go on. If I remember right, the bikes had a basic laser on a button as standard, which I thought was wild next to having to pick stuff up.

Rollcage and Firebugs were probably the mid-tier highlights for me in that era - not sure if they hold up, but the invertible cars and pipe tracks were neat.

WipEout and F-Zero are always very interesting to compare. WipEout has a very high skill floor. You can't really get good at WipEout until you've gotten a handle on it's physics which is a high learning curve for a lot of new players. Pitch control, really strict airbraking, the more gradual turning, etc. Conversely, F-Zero has a much lower skill floor, but I'd argue that it has a much higher ceiling for technical optimization. X, GX, and Climax at least. I tend to play both series very equally.

I think the games' relative input methods speak volumes about how they scale to high-level play; WipEout is all about fine-grained analog precision, and benefits greatly from a focused controller like the NeGcon - I built a custom PS1-to-USB adapter for mine, since all the commercial ones have horrible deadzones, and it's been a stalwart companion through the whole series.

Whereas GX is a consummately GameCube game - lots of reactive stick-slamming, trigger precision, and a general disdain for the lil' C-Nubbin!
Attempting to play it with the NeGcon might account for why I didn't get it at first, since its wide high-resistance steering isn't so well suited to quickturns and full-commit turbo slides.

On the whole, they're both excellent. Right now I'm digging the hell out of GX, but it'd be foolish to declare it Best Ever so early into the honeymoon period

The only thing about WipEout I've never liked is how few tracks they tend to have compared to other racers. And they try to make up for this by making you go through speed classes which I just don't care for. I'm only trying to play the games on Phantom. I appreciate that F-Zero is just one speed and a good amount of tracks.

Yeah, this has really stuck out to me playing through GX; physics are fixed, and difficulty is a function of how good the other racers are. I prefer it, gives the player a consistent learning environment throughout, which makes for great brain candy since improvement is very tangible.

It's an interesting case for the classical rubberbanding problem too - I'm fairly convinced that it's super aggressive with it (Goroh's campaign track being a particularly obvious example), but haven't run into a single blatant fuck this case in my playtime.

The PSP entries are my favorites, and they both give you a shitload of tracks. I personally prefer the handling in Pulse (the PS2 version is my vote for best futuristic racer of all time), but Pure is fantastic too.

I really like Pure; true to the name, it hits a sweet spot of refreshing the PS1 physics model without making major changes or additions like the tighter turning and flip boost from Pulse and beyond. Not necessarily the best in the series, but a really nicely-formed little package.

I'd probably pick 2097 for the classics, and HD for the modern entries. Specifically HD; Fury has a badass menu, but the campaign is way too combat-heavy.

Pure was the one I played to death. Wipeout HD on PS3 was based on tracks from Pure & Pulse, I had it but got kind of burned out on the difficulty, so I never got 2048 on Vita when that came around.

You didn't miss much; 2048 is fine enough, but slightly too close to being a less-refined (probably on purpose, since it's the low-tech prequel) retread of HD.

The coolest part is probably the aesthetic and tracks; getting to see a less-pristine version of the WipEoutverse that still has some light vestiges of present-day to its its futuristic cityscapes.